Jonah was perhaps the most reluctant of all the prophets. We
are told that when he was called, he decided to run away from God. He did this
by taking a ship. Since Israel regarded the sea as the remnants of the chaos
left over after the creation, filled with enormous monsters that only God
himself could control, this is an odd decision, to say the least. And indeed,
as the story tells us, there is a storm at sea and the frightened sailors throw
him overboard, believing him to be the cause of the storm. We are told that
Jonah was swallowed by one of the great sea monsters, an enormous fish, which
three days later threw him up on the shore of the place he was to preach to and
convert. Again reluctantly, he does what God requires of him, to preach
conversion to the city. When the city converts upon hearing his message, he
goes off and sulks.
Jonah is a story rather than an actual history. The Bible is
a library that contains history, poetry, letters, a hymn book (Psalms), even
short stories such as Ruth and Jonah. But the message that the book of Jonah
communicates to us reveals vital and eternal truths. One is that God has a task
for us, and that we cannot escape his will, whether we act willingly or resist
him. The High Priest of Israel wanted to stop Jesus from proclaiming his
message by having the Romans crucify him. But in the crucifixion of Jesus, God’s
will for Jesus was actually carried out; to die, taking the sins of the world
upon his shoulders and to rise from the dead to give us eternal life. On the
other hand, Mary accepted the great task of the world at once, with her words
to the angel Gabriel, “I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done to me as
you have said.”
Fr. Phillip
